Biography
Ed Parker was an Illinois Workers Alliance organizer arrested with four unnamed men in a raid on an Alliance meeting in Peoria on Monday, August 17, 1936. The report says the five were summarily given six months and taken to the Vandalia State Farm by Tuesday afternoon, August 18. The Chicago Workers Defense League sent a lawyer to investigate after police withheld trial information. The exact statutory accusation and any later appeal or discharge are unreported. Daily Worker, August 26, 1936, page 2. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1936/v13-n205-NY-aug-26-1936-DW-Q.pdf
The Socialist Call, June 26, 1937, page 8, identifies Edward Parker as the Illinois Workers Alliance organizer prosecuted at Cairo with four other Alliance members over a January demonstration that obtained flood relief for unemployed residents. Parker's signed jail account describes the May 24 trial opening, re-arrest in court by capias when the defense challenged arrest without warrant, multiple indictments including riot, assault with intent to murder, unlawful assembly and arson/malicious mischief, and denial of several defense motions. A mistrial followed discovery that a town constable on the jury was still in office, and the case was continued to July. The news introduction reports actual release a week after the trial on $4,500 bail executed by the National Surety Corporation, after officials had delayed approval for nearly a month despite funds being raised. Parker's first-person account was written before that release. These are distinct from his 1936 Peoria/Vandalia case. Francis Heisler and David F. Lansden assisted the defense; M. J. O'Shea led the prosecution. No exact physical-release day or completed custody total is supplied. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/socialist-call/call%203-119.pdf
